THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF POMEGRANATE SEED PULP WITH MULTI-ENZYME ON PERFORMANCE, EGG QUALITY AND SERUM ANTIOXIDANT IN LAYING HENS

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of supplementation different levels of pomegranate seed pulp (PSP) on performance and blood parameters in laying hens. A total of 96 layers hens (Hy-line W-36) at 24 week of age were randomly assigned into 4 treatments including 0 (control), 5, 10 and 15% of PSP, with 4 replicates containing 6 layers in each. Results showed no significant effect of PSP levels on feed intake, egg mass, egg weight, feed conversion ratio and body weight gain. Supplementation of PSP at 5% increased egg production and is significantly different (P<0.05) to 15% PSP but not in control group, suggesting negative effect of high level PSP in layers diet. Haugh unit, yolk and albumen indexes as well as eggshell weight, eggshell ratio and breaking strength were not significantly affected by dietary PSP. There was no significant effect of PSP on serum triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein and total antioxidant. In contrast, the serum malondialdehyde was significantly (P<0.05) increased using 5% PSP in diet,with cholesterol level significantly (P<0.05) increased in all inclusion level of PSP compared to the control. The results shown that supplementation of PSP up to 15% improve egg production but higher concentration has detrimental effects on laying performance. Supplementation of PSP increased (P<0.05) cholesterol in the layers blood.